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User blog:Kazanshin/My belief on the katana
Elegantly crafted. Steel tempered and folded until it reaches perfection. A sword that no armor, no shield can stop. The blade cuts flash and the flat deflect steel. The honor and soul of a samurai and a swordsmith. Used as well on the ground and on the horse. The samurai practises its way until death separates him from his blade. The katana. The best blade that the samurai can use. Or so we all thought. Just because it’s so popular. Because it’s edgy and cool. But enough of this bullshit. The katana isn’t the best blade in the world, and not even the best blade a samurai can use. Here are a few things I have to say on the katana. Mind that all of this is coming from a Japanese who descends from none other than godf****ing Oda Nobunaga (well, technically my direct ancestor is his brother Nobuyuki). First of all, the name“katana”. That’s not the proper name. It’s called an “uchigatana”, and katana in Japanese encompasses all one-bladed swords. Nihontou is for Japanese swords and the famous “katana” is the uchigatana. Now that that’s out of the way let’s start by the pros of the uchigatana. It’s a relatively short blade, making it less likely to bend when hitting or stabbing an enemy, which means it can keep its full strength whenever it hits. Next, the blade is slightly curved, which means it has both good cutting power and stabbing power. Its curve also gives it the advantage of being able to be swung directly when drawing. It’s relatively lightweight, which means it can also be swung with both one hand or two-handedly. Next, here are a few swords that I think the uchigatana beats: the rapier (better slashing power and two handed) the scimitar (straighter blade for superior stab) the arming sword (less prone to bending) and the gladius (longer blade and two handed). But now that I’ve talked about how magnificent and almighty the uchigatana is as an honoraburr and loyal Japaniizu Samoorai, let’s look at the cons: the biggest is that the metallurgy so praised was so the lower quality steel of Japan could match those of Europe (this by no means makes it a bad blade, but just debunking the “super quality steel” thing). The blade is one-sided. It’s, as stated before, shorter than lets say a longsword. It, just like most swords, doesn’t have the power to cut through armor (although it and other swords being completely ineffective isn’t exactly accurate). ''' '''Just a thing is that some people make the “bad quality steel” thing much more extreme than it is. Sure, Japanese steel wasn’t AS good as European one, but it still did have what it needed to be a good blade that could kill on the battlefield. Here are some blades that I consider superior to the uchigatana (and that are not Japanese, thats for later): the longsword (longer reach and bigger blade=superior striking strength) the claymore (just superior power over any advantage a katana may have) the zhanmadao (longer and more powerful)... And honestly, that’s pretty much all that I can think of. Other Chinese and Korean sword are on par and more “primitive” swords like the shark teeth or the the macuahuitl, well, I don’t need to explain. Now, onto a better choice for the samurai’s close range weapons. Of course, there’s the obvious tachi blade, but the nagamaki also is a pretty interesting choice due to its unique build and reach. However, all Nihontous are wittle itty bitty baby toys compared to the monster big daddy of them all: the Nodachi. The Nodachi is one of the two blades that people like to call the “Zanbato” (the other is the chinese zhanmadao, which is read in Japanese as Zanbato). It’s big, it’s sharp, it’s elegant and its deadly. I’ll get more onto the Nodachi in an eventual “the mighty Nodachi” or whatever blog I’ll eventually make, but here are the obvious advantages: '-longer reach' '-superior striking power' '-actual battlefield weapon' '-can be used against cavalry' And that about wraps it up, at least for today. Thanks for bearing with my furious rant. Category:Blog posts